Hamilton: Marcus Daly's Company Town

Hamilton exists because Marcus Daly decided he needed lumber. One of the Copper Kings who made fortunes from the Butte mines, Daly came to the Bitterroot Valley in the eighteen eighties and assembled twenty-two thousand acres. His lumber supplied the mine shafts and smelters at Anaconda, and in eighteen ninety he had a town platted to house the workers.

The Bitter Root Development Company, affiliated with Daly's Anaconda operation, owned the mill, the hotel, the store, and the company houses. Daly also brought thoroughbred horses here, breeding champions on his estate south of town. When he died in nineteen hundred, Hamilton had already outgrown its origins.

Hamilton won the Ravalli County seat from Stevensville in eighteen ninety-eight, locking in Hamilton's position as the commercial capital of the Bitterroot Valley. The Daly Mansion still stands, open for tours.